First impressions, it's pretty good. The development of their sound has clearly continued, with former Cookie Monster Oli Sykes' vocals approaching singing, whilst still being obviously him. Bookended with ethereal electronic beats, chock-full of chugging riffs and with a chorus custom-made for being chanted live, it's BMTH doing what they have shown they're able to do well.
My criticism of it however, also comes from the above mentioned chugging riffs - it's all a bit samey. There's too much open-string that I can see turning into a scenario where everybody assumes the crab position and headbangs. I'm not denying it has its' place within this side of metal, but I hope there's a bit more variance in the riffage on the rest of the album. Because crabbing is annoying.
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| Crabcore, ably demonstrated by my associate from Attack Attack. Photo credit http://instagram.com/p/TuVaBpnz7t/ |
Despite my criticism, I can't deny I'm looking forward to Semptiernal, it's going to be huge whether we like it or not.
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And just because I can:
